RECOVERY  OF  METALS  FROM  A MIXTURE  OF  BRONZE 
AND  BABBIT  TURNINGS 


BY 


c.  j;  Thiel 


thesis 


FOR  THE 


DEGREE  OF  BACHELOR  OF  SCIENCE 


IN  CHEMISTRY 


COLLEGE  OF  LIBERAL  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


1922 


Finley 


' 


V. 


AGO  0V/LEDG1IBN  T 


To  Professor  W.  S.  Pat nam, under  whose  direction 
this  investigation  was  carried  oat,  the  writer  wishes 
to  express  his  gratitude  for  many  kindly  suggestions. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/recoveryofmetalsOOthie 


TABLE  OJ?  CONTENTS 


I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 


Introduction 

Historical 

Experimental 

Summary 

Bibliography 


p . 4 
p.  4 
p . 5 
p.  13 
p . 14 


4 

Separation  of  Bronze  and  Babbit  Turnings. 

I. 

Introduction 

This  investigation  was  taken  up  on  account  of  the  large 
amount  of  v/aste  product  which  is  lying  about. at  many  o,_  our 
metal  industries  and  which,  if  sold  as  it  is,  would  bring  a 
very  low  price  as  scrap,  but  which,  if  properly  separated, 

would  command  a higher  price. 

The  turnings  which  were  used  in  this  work  ve^e  ob- 
tained from  the  trimmings  of  castings.  This  mixture  of  bronze 

and  babbit  is  obtained  as  follows: - 

Babbit  is  poured  into  a bronze  casting.  This  cashing 
and  the  babbit  core  is  then  trimmed  and  turned  until  the 
desired  size  of  the  easting  is  reached.  These  trimmings  and 
turnings  are  therefore  composed  of  the  outei*  bronze  cashing 
and  the  inner  babbit  core. 

II. 

Historical 

Up  to  the  present  date  no  work  has  been  found  to  have 
been  done  on  this  subject,  either  in  writing  or  experimenta- 
tion. The  nearest  relative  article  which  could  be  found  was 
that  on  the  extraction  of  lead  from  a copper  alloy.  As  oh is 
was  a liquidation  process,  it  could  with  all  reasonableness 
be  applied  to  the  Separation  of  Bronze  from  Babbit. 

As  taken  from  the  ’’Foundry”  of  August  1921  the  article 
states  that:  the  presence  of  antimony  would  add  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  liquidating  the  lead  from  the  copper,  and  if  the 


' 


. 


- 


j 


. 


5 


alloy  fails  to  liquidate,  no  separation  can  be  made,  and  it 
will  have  to  be  utilized  by  alloying  small  amounts  with  the 
regular  alloys,  allowing  for  the  lead  content. 

III. 

Experimental 

A.  In  the  first  place  the  ideal  method  would  be  by  seme 
physical  means  as  this  would  be  the  most  economical  from  every 
standpoint,  There  are  two  ways  open  for  such  a separation, 
namely,  a separation  on  a "Wilfley  Concentrating  Table,"  the 
action  of  which  causes  a heavier  constituent  of  the  mixture 

to  go  over  the  "concentrate"  side,  in  ihis  case  bronze,  and  the 
other  constituent  of  lower  specific  gravity  to  go  over  the 
"tailing” side , in  this  case  babbit.  For  separation  on  the 
Wilfley  Table,  the  difference  in  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
constituents  need  not  be  over  .5,  provided  the  size  of  the 
particles  to  be  separated  are  uniform  in  size,  or  in  other 
words , classified  particles.  The  problem  then  is  to  produce 
or  obtain  metallic  turnings  in  a uniform  size  by  some  means. 

This  method  was  not  tried  because  at  the  time  it  was 
impossible  to  get  the  use  of  the  Wilfley  Table,  and  the  differ- 
ence in  specific  gravity  ms  too  small. 

B.  The  second  method  is  by  the  use  of  the  electrostatic 
separator,  vhieh  is  used  so  much  today  for  the  separation  of 
certain  minerals  like  lime  nit e from  Monazite. 

The  electrostatic  separation  was  tried,  but  the  results 
were  not  very  satisfactory. 

luring  these  tests  the  voltage  was  about  275.  In  the 


■ 


6 


first  trial  the  rod  was  set  about  two 


was  a continual  sparking.  On  the 


inches  away  as  in  the  accompanying 


examination  of  the  material  in  the 


illustration.  At  this  distance  there 


receivers,  there  wasTnt  a very  noticable 


separation.  Only  powdered  particles  were 
attracted.  This  led  to  the  belief  that  the 

sample  was  too  coarse.  Accordingly,  the  turnings  were  put  in 
the  ball  mill  and  reduced  to  a finer  mesh.  The  efficiency  of 
this  mill  in  reducing  the  size  of  the  turnings  was  very  low, 
for  after  running  the  mill  for  15  hours  only  about  five 


eighths  of  the  sample  went  thru  the  twenty  mesh  sieve. 

A second  trial  was  made  with  the  separator,  and  this 
time  several  experiments  were  tried. 

1.  A high  voltage  was  used  with  the  rod  two  inches 
away  from  the  revolving  disc.  The  results  were 
very  much  sparking  and  no  separation. 

2.  A high  voltage  was  used  with  the  rod  one  inch 
away  from  the  revolving  disc.  The  results  were 
less  sparking,  but  still  a very  poor  separation. 

3.  A low  voltage  was  used  with  the  rod.  one  inch 
away  from  the  revolving  disc.  The  results  were 
fair.  There  was  no  sparking  and  the  separation 
was  the  best  ever  obtained. 

Analysis  was  made  of  the  separated  particles,  but  since 
the  composition  varied  so  greatly,  the  report  does’nt  show 


much.  The  one  thing  to  be  noted  however  is  that  the  bronze 


' 


* 


turnings  were  present  in  the  greater  proportion  on  the 
attracted  side,  say  five  to  one. 

Report  of  the  Analysis. 

Attracted  Portion  av.  cu  = 50.1 

Unattracted  Portion  av.  cu  = £9.8 

C.  A third  way  of  separation  is  "by  some  chemical  method, 
using  some  selective  reagent  , dissolving  out  the  "bronze  from 
which  the  copper  could  be  crystallized  in  the  form  of  some  sal 
or  perhaps  electrolized  and  the  zinc  recovered  by  the  same 
means.  The  residue  of  babbit  smelted  in  some  salts  of  tin  or 
ant  imony . 

This  method  was  more  satisfactory  than  any  of  the  pre- 
ceeding  ones,  and  was  tried  out  as  follows:- 

An  electrolysis  was  made  according  to  the  following  set 


The  anode  consisted  of  a mixture  of  the  bronze  and  babbit  held 
at  800°G  for  one  half  hour,  poured  into  a sand  mould  which  has 
the  following  dimensions 

3 in.  wide 

4 in.  deep 
i in.  thick 

The  cathode  consisted  of  a sheet  of  pure  copper  three 


' 


• * 


. 


, 


\ 


. 


. 


10 

Deposit  3.4  gr.  Wt.  of  cathode  = 13.4  gr. 

it.  of  sludge  = .25  gr. 

Loss  in  wt.  of  anode  = 5.7  gr. 

Total  gain  in  wt . of  cathode  = 7.4  gr. 

.*.  wt . of  cu.  taken  from  electrolyte  = 1.95  gr. 

This  method  sh owed  a way  of  recovering  the  copper  from 
the  alloy  of  "bronze  and  babbit.  As  a process  for  commercial 
work,  the  cost  of  installation  and  operation  would  be  too  great 
for  the  average  manufacturing  plant.  So  with  the  idea  of  com- 
mercialization in  mind  another  method  was  looked  for. 

D.  A leaching  process  was  tired  on  the  mixture  of  bronze 
and  babbit.  First  it  was  leached  in  a HC1  solution  and  then  in 
a HgSO^solut ion  for  a period  of  forty  eight  hours.  The  total 
loss  in  weight  was  only  a bait  1 fo, 

F.  A liquidation  process  also  proved  of  very  little  use, 
of 

because^the  ratio  of  the  babbit  to  the  bronze. 

A small  furnace  with  a sloping  cast  iron  bottom  and  a 
top  hole  at  the  lowest  point,  which  was  kept  open,  was  built. 

The  cast  iron  plates  were  heated  to  redness.  The  babbit  shaild 
melt,  flow  down  the  incline  and  be  collected  under  the  top  hole. 
But  this  did  not  happen,  due  to  there  being  only  a small  amount 
of  babbit.  When  it  did  melt,  it  adhered  to  the  bronze  particles, 
instead  of  flowing  down  to  the  top  hole. 

F.  Fusion  processes  were  tried  which  t eliminated  with  the 
foil owing  re  suit  s . 

First  Fusion 

20  gr.  metal 
20  gr.  niter 


' 


20  gr.  litharge 

20  gr.  Sodium  Carbonate 

Results:  Ho  button 


11 


Second  Fusion 


10  gr.  NaCI 


10  gr.  Metal 


5 gr.  SnClg 

Results:  Button  7 grs 


12  $ Sn 


Third  Fusion 


10  gr.  Metal 


20  gr.  IlagCOg 
Results  Button  7 + grs 


16$  Sn 


Fourth  Fusion 

20  gr.  Metal 
20  gr.  NaHCOg 
20  gr.  NaCI 

Result s -Button  with  the  following  analysis :- 
Sn.  18$ 

Pb.  4.35$ 

Sb.  Trace 
Zn.  Trace 
Cu.  77.$ 

Fifth  Fusion 

20  gr.  Metal 
25  gr.  HaHCOg 
20  gr.  Ha Cl 

Re suits -Butt on  with  the  following  analysis:- 


12 


Sn. 

18f> 

Pb. 

5/0 

Sb. 

Trace 

Zn . 

Bone 

Cu. 

76.74 fo 

The  results  from  the  fifth  fusion,  being  the  best  ob- 
tained, the  next  step  in  the  process  was  the  recovery  of  the 
tin  from  the  slag. 

This  was  tired  out  in  various  ways:- 
1st.  The  slag  was  roasted  at  a temperature  of  1100 °G 
together  with  a flux  of  Borax  glass  and  charcoal.  The  results 
of  this  trial  was  negative. 

2nd.  A leaching  process  was  tried  on  the  roasted  and 
unroasted  slag  with  the  following  results 

20.50 
76.00 
1.00 
1.50 
.50 
.50 

100.00 

Qualitative  Analysis  of  Soluble  Portions  of  Roasted  and  xjn- 

roasted  Slag. 

f>  Soluble  in  HgO 
Ha 


Slag  = Powdered 
Boiled  10  min. 
fo  Soluble  in  HgO  70.00 

f Soluble  in  HC1  21.00 

fo  Soluble  in  HgSO^  1.50 


f Soluble  in  HNO 


fo  Soluble  in  la  OH  .50 

fo  Insoluble  .50 


Roasted  Slag  r Powder* 
Boiled  10  min. 
fa  Soluble  in  HgO 
fo  Soluble  in  EC1 
fo  Soluble  in  HgSO^ 

if.  O 


6.50  Soluble  in  HHC^ 

fo  Soluble  in  BaOH 
fo  Insoluble 


100.00 


V 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


14 


Anodic  solution  of  Cu. 

Chem. 

Abs . 

1920 

-1224. 

Electro-deposition  of  Cu. 

it 

ii 

it 

1193. 

it 

ri 

ii 

2084. 

Electro-chemical  production  of  Cu. 

from  ores. 

ii 

ii 

ii 

2464. 

Electro-metallurgical  process  for 

extracting  Cu. 

it 

IT 

ir 

1345. 

ii 

t! 

ii 

2838. 

ii 

II 

ii 

2842. 

Electrolytic  production  of  Cu. 

n 

IT 

it 

253. 

Recovery  from  Brass 

13.  S. 

Patent  850601. 

Refining  of  Cu. 

n 

ii 

353784. 

Refining  and  over  poling  of  Elec- 
trolytic Cu.  Chern.  Abs . 1920-1384. 

Technical  Analysis  of  Brass 
Price  & Meade 
Metallic  Alloys 

G.  H.  Gulliver  Vol.I  & II 
Chemical  Analysis 
Scott 


Handbook  of  Metallurgy 

Schnabel  & Louis  Vol.  II 
Qualitative  Chemical  Analysis 
V'.  Hoyes 

Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis 


Talbot 


